strange fedora problem



Hello all,

Strange problem with a linux installation. Data coming from the system comes out in very erratic bursts. I know its the software configuration because if I boot up Knoppix LiveCD the problem goes away, however I am unable to duplicate the success of Knoppix AND its speed. Wondering if someone here can help me. I haven't named the distro because I have had redhat 9, fedora 1,2 & 3 on this machine. Right now its Fedora 3.

I am at 100MB/Full (autoneg off) -- verified with ethtool.

C:\iperf>iperf -c 192.168.1.4 -r
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.4, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[1932] local 192.168.1.80 port 1872 connected with 192.168.1.4 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[1932]  0.0-10.0 sec  85.1 MBytes  71.3 Mbits/sec
[1912] local 192.168.1.80 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.4 port 47871
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0-10.0 sec  8.95 MBytes  7.49 Mbits/sec

On the linux side:

#./iperf -s -i 1
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local 192.168.1.4 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.80 port 1872
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 1.0 sec  8.20 MBytes  68.8 Mbits/sec
[  4]  1.0- 2.0 sec  8.53 MBytes  71.6 Mbits/sec
[  4]  2.0- 3.0 sec  8.55 MBytes  71.7 Mbits/sec
[  4]  3.0- 4.0 sec  8.56 MBytes  71.8 Mbits/sec
[  4]  4.0- 5.0 sec  8.55 MBytes  71.7 Mbits/sec
[  4]  5.0- 6.0 sec  8.51 MBytes  71.4 Mbits/sec
[  4]  6.0- 7.0 sec  8.57 MBytes  71.9 Mbits/sec
[  4]  7.0- 8.0 sec  8.56 MBytes  71.8 Mbits/sec
[  4]  8.0- 9.0 sec  8.55 MBytes  71.7 Mbits/sec
[  4]  9.0-10.0 sec  8.54 MBytes  71.6 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  85.1 MBytes  71.4 Mbits/sec
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.80, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local 192.168.1.4 port 47871 connected with 192.168.1.80 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 1.0 sec   760 KBytes  6.23 Mbits/sec
[  4]  1.0- 2.0 sec  1.04 MBytes  8.72 Mbits/sec
[  4]  2.0- 3.0 sec   120 KBytes   983 Kbits/sec
[  4]  3.0- 4.0 sec  1.59 MBytes  13.4 Mbits/sec
[  4]  4.0- 5.0 sec   408 KBytes  3.34 Mbits/sec
[  4]  5.0- 6.0 sec  1.64 MBytes  13.8 Mbits/sec
[  4]  6.0- 7.0 sec   816 KBytes  6.68 Mbits/sec
[  4]  7.0- 8.0 sec   696 KBytes  5.70 Mbits/sec
[  4]  8.0- 9.0 sec   504 KBytes  4.13 Mbits/sec
[  4]  9.0-10.0 sec  1.45 MBytes  12.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  8.95 MBytes  7.49 Mbits/sec

Now this is actually about 700% than before. Applying a dump of the sysctl output from Knoppix to this system improved its performance. So its has improved from 1Mbits/sec to the 7.49Mbits you see here. In Knoppix the send/receive bandwidth is running around 95.1Mbits/sec.

The only odd thing I see if that ifconfig thinks the ethernet (builtin broadcom [tg3 driver]) is on IRQ: 169 ... In Knoppix it does report correctly as 16. The version of the driver (tg3) matches between Knoppix and this system.

The hardware is:

Dell Intel P4 3Ghz
Broadcom NIC (integerated)
CAT 5 cable (tried a diff one too)
Cisco 2924 Switch (tried a Linksys one too)
The other servers include a Sun Machine, Free BSD, 3 Windows Servers, etc. All exibiting the same issues at different rates. They can all pass data between themselves around 97 Mbits/sec.


Aram





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